20 / 116
D I VE SLATE
18
|
WINTER 2017
F
or the past three decades the coral
reefs of the Florida Keys have been
under stress. A poisonous cocktail of
high ocean temperatures, polluted
runoff from coastal development, coral
disease and the sudden disappearance
of algae-grazing urchins (
Diadema
) left millions of
corals stricken, many never to recover.
Two species in particular — the venerable
elkhorn (
Acropora palmata
) and staghorn (
Acropora
cervicornis
) varieties — felt the impact most acutely.
Undisputed reef-building champions of the Caribbean
for thousands of years, they had laid the foundations
of the region’s most vibrant ecosystems. Since the
1970s populations of elkhorn and staghorn have
declined by an estimated 92-97 percent.
Today, however, there’s a new effort in the works
to rebuild these desolated reefs from the ground
up with the hope that once-prosperous underwater
communities could soon recapture their former glory.
THE PROJECT
In late 2016, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) awarded a $2.1 million
grant to the Florida-based Coral Restoration
Foundation (CRF) to undertake one of the most
ambitious coral-planting efforts in history. The
project sets a target of growing more than 50,000
coral species, mostly staghorn and elkhorn, and
distributing them across eight reefs along the Florida
Reef Tract over three years.
For Kayla Ripple, CRF science program manager,
that investment represents a major milestone for her
organization and for the coral restoration field as a
whole. “No one’s ever done restoration on this scale
before,” Ripple said. “This is going to be the basis for
our entire work for the next three years, and we’re
really excited about it.”
NOAA Coral Reef Restoration Program Manager
Tom Moore, whose office supports restoration of
damaged areas that “need a little extra boost,” said
the grant is the NOAA Restoration Center’s largest
in terms of number of corals on an individual award.
“Every year we’re upping the ante on what we’ve done
in the past,” Moore said. “And the reality is that we
have to — we don’t have any choice in the matter. In
order to have restoration matter at an ecosystem level,
we’ve got to continue to significantly increase the
amount of restoration that’s being done every year.”
Founded in 2007 by coral-restoration pioneer
Ken Nedimyer, CRF is a nonprofit organization
that works to restore and study coral reefs and
educate the public about the importance of the
oceans. CRF has developed ingenious tools and
techniques to cultivate and plant threatened corals
such as staghorn and elkhorn, collectively known as
branching corals or Acroporids.
One of CRF’s biggest innovations has been the
development of coral nurseries off the Florida coast,
where CRF staff and volunteers nurture fragments of
corals into specimens large enough to transfer onto
a reef in need. These floating havens, six in total,
will supply all 50,000 of the corals for the three-year
project. Each nursery consists of a submerged forest
of PVC pipe “trees” with perpendicular branches from
which up to 100 pieces of coral are suspended by
fishing line.
The nursery corals are organized by species and
by their genetic makeup, or genotype. Each PVC tree
is also a family tree of sorts, hosting corals that are
18
THE RESTORATION REVOLUTION
|
22
STUDYING DEEP REEFS AND DEEP DIVERS
26
REDISCOVERING HISTORY PRESERVED BY THE SEA
|
30
DAN MEMBER PROFILE
32
PUBLIC SAFETY ANNOUNCEMENT, PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT
|
33
TRAVEL SMARTER
THE RESTORATION REVOLUTION
GEARING UP FOR THE LARGEST CORAL RESTORATION
PROJECT EVER IN THE FLORIDA KEYS
Text by Matt Dozier; photos by Stephen Frink